Where do you find a "pay phone" these days???

73

Howard #3



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2012 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: Third party rules.


> I'm not sure I know anyone, except perhaps my 87 year old grandmother, and
> my GF's 92 year old grandfather, that don't own a cell phone.
> Why use auto patch when you can easily make a more or less private call to
> who you want?
> And, it's full duplex instead of half duplex like auto patch.
> radio ops are used to keying up and talking and then listening to the 
> other
> persons transmission, but most people aren't, so having a meaningful
> conversation over auto patch with a non-ham is almost impossible.
> The only places radio telephone is still used that I know of is in remote
> areas of north western, and northern canada where there is no cellular
> coverage.  And with that, it's all commercial and operated by the regional
> telco...we have one repeater here with auto patch, and it doesn't work 
> most
> of the time...it's more of a novelty than a reliable or useful feature.
> Yes, I do pay for my cell phone air time, but I'm going to have that
> regardless, so I might as well use the far more convenient and reliable 
> cell
> phone rather than a flaky or potentially unreliable autopatch.
> And if my cell phone battery goes dead, well, I always keep enough change 
> in
> my wallet to use a pay phone if I have to for an emergency or something 
> very
> important.
> I've also asked hams on the repeater to make a phone call for me when my
> cell battery is dead, and I'm not near a pay phone, and I just happen to
> have a handheld on me.
> I pretty much always have a charged HT in my backpack when I'm travelling
> around the city or out of town just in case.
> I haven't heard phone patch on HF in probably 20 years either.
>
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2012 9:39 PM
> Subject: Re: Third party rules.
>
>
>> There's only one repeater I know of in my area with auto patch anymore 
>> and
>> each club member who chooses to, can pretty much only call home or
>> whatever
>> emergency  number they designate. Other than the amateur radio news line
>> every week, I don't think that auto patch has been used for anything else
>> in
>> 7 or 8 years at the least, maybe more than 10.
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Harvey Heagy" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2012 6:44 PM
>> Subject: Re: Third party rules.
>>
>>
>>> There was a time when we had to do that too.  There was at least one
>>> person
>>> who was bringing up the autopatch without identifying himself and 
>>> placing
>>> calls to either long distance or 976 numbers.  I had to bring down the
>>> patch
>>> a few times myself when he did that, or tried to.  The club eventually
>>> blocked most of these numbers as well as long distance numbers, and when
>>> someone would try to do that, they would get a response in code, "SRI,"
>>> which I believe is an abbreviation for sorry.
>>> Harvey
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "COLLEEN ROTH" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2012 4:43 PM
>>> Subject: Re: Third party rules.
>>>
>>>
>>>>i have to say that there can be as many flaky people on the low bands as
>>>>on
>>>>UHFSTVHF.
>>>> Not all poor operators are on UHFSTVHF.
>>>> Colleen Roth, N8TNV;